{"id":50179,"date":"2026-07-15T06:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/matt-kuchar-almost-won-the-2017-british-open-and-earned-his-place-in-history-until-jordan-spieth-went-crazy\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T06:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T10:49:10","slug":"matt-kuchar-almost-won-the-2017-british-open-and-earned-his-place-in-history-until-jordan-spieth-went-crazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/matt-kuchar-almost-won-the-2017-british-open-and-earned-his-place-in-history-until-jordan-spieth-went-crazy\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Kuchar almost won the 2017 British Open and earned his place in history until Jordan Spieth went crazy."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>SOUTHPORT, England \u2013 Matt Kuchar was five holes away from immortality.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s just five holes away from the 2017 British Open here at Royal Birkdale and his name will be permanently engraved on golf&#8217;s oldest trophy, the Claret Jug, giving him a spot at the Open until he turns 60. Instead, he missed out on a spot in the 154th round at the mercy of Jordan Spieth and one of the great final-round performances in major championship history.<sup>th<\/sup> We are open this week. He was close to becoming Champion Golfer of the Year, but he hasn&#8217;t played in the field since 2021 and never got a taste of the title again.<\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I felt like it was in my hands and all of a sudden Jordan Spieth was putting on a show and claiming it as his own,&#8221; Kuchar says. <em>golf week<\/em> In a recent phone interview. &#8220;Listen, I lost, but it&#8217;s tough when you feel like you were that close at a certain point. I think that makes it even harder.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong>more: <\/strong>Matt Kuchar is Golfweek&#8217;s Father of the Year for finding the &#8220;magic&#8221; in his impressive golf victories.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"lightbox-btn\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;expand&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;image-lightbox&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;lightbox-open&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\"><span class=\"lightbox-expand\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Image Lightbox\" class=\"lightbox-overlay\" aria-modal=\"true\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\">\n<p>Matt Kuchar reacts to a putt on the 11th green during the final round of the 146th British Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England on July 23, 2017. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Birkdale is where Kuchar first played in the British Open in 1998 as the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, and although he missed the cut in 2008, he shot his first 65 in 2017 and made his presence felt in the race for the Claret Jug.<\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That week, I remember being frustrated that I was hitting a big fade and couldn&#8217;t turn the ball over from right to left for the life of me. There were so many crosswinds, so I kept trying to hit draws because I thought it would help if I could hold in the headwind in the left-to-right wind,&#8221; Kuchar explained. \u201cSometimes golf becomes a little easier when you can predict the outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He shot a 71 in the second round and a 66 on Saturday, including a double bogey on the 16th where he hit a fairway bunker, was forced to punch out, and three-putted after his approach. He entered the final round with a three-stroke lead over Spieth and a great chance to win his first major. His wife, Sibi, didn&#8217;t want to miss out on being there, so she and her sons, Cameron and Carson, hopped on an overnight flight from Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>Spieth had already splashed the ball all over the course, sinking three three-putts on the front nine and leaking oil, but his tee shot on the par-4 13th went 75 yards to the right of the fairway. Kuchar&#8217;s caddy, John Wood, wasn&#8217;t even sure he could find the ball in the deep grass, but they did, so Spieth&#8217;s only option was to take it unplayable. He then sensibly asked whether a practice range would be considered within limits. He was allowed to take site-of-line relief with a clean lie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong>more: <\/strong>Our Open Championship Hub: Videos, Stories and More<\/span><\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I saw him have a short game and be able to get it down the fairway and pull it close to the green, I thought I had a chance. I still thought he was most likely going for six, but I certainly didn&#8217;t think five was out of the realm of possibility,&#8221; Wood recalled.<\/p>\n<p>Spieth returned to play with a 3-iron, pulled it to 10 feet and holed the putt for one of the best bogeys of all time. &#8220;I felt like I stole something,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Kuchar maintained a one-stroke lead, even as he burned his edge with birdie putts. Spieth, then 23, followed for the first time this week, hitting his tee shot two feet from the hole on the par-3 14th hole.<sup>th<\/sup> He started a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie streak and won by three strokes over Kuchar.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Jordan Spieth holds the Claret Jug as he is congratulated by Matt Kuchar on the 18th green during the final round of the 146th British Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England on July 23, 2017.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"1283\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/nsnD45h0B2imdI1jRgTlqg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEyODM7Y2Y9d2VicA--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/usa_today_sports_golfweek_articles_635\/718500df26999b56af17c78fc12c610d\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"lightbox-btn\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;expand&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;image-lightbox&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;lightbox-open&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\"><span class=\"lightbox-expand\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Image Lightbox\" class=\"lightbox-overlay\" aria-modal=\"true\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\">\n<p>Jordan Spieth holds the Claret Jug as he is congratulated by Matt Kuchar on the 18th green during the final round of the 146th British Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England on July 23, 2017.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;It was a complete turnaround to go from hitting a big foul ball to suddenly playing great golf from there,&#8221; Kuchar said. \u201cIt was a great run and there were definitely points where I felt like, <em>Holy cow, it&#8217;s my turn. I&#8217;m going to claim the majors.<\/em> Jordan Spieth stepped up another gear and made a great play. There&#8217;s nothing I can do except tip the guy who hit me. I&#8217;m a big fan of Jordan Spieth. He&#8217;s been in great shape for a long time, especially with his putter, and what he did with it over the last six holes was pretty remarkable. \u201d<\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Wood said Kuchar probably never fully recovered from his dream of winning a major being nearly accomplished, but the way Spieth held the title with both fists eased the pain.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Matt played the next four holes at 2 under. When you get a one-shot lead and play the next four holes at 2 under, you&#8217;d think you&#8217;d still have a lead, but you know, we didn&#8217;t. It was just us getting blitzed,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The fact that Cucci played well. You know, that made it easier. We didn&#8217;t give it away. Cucci played well, and Jordan did the Jordan thing at the end and took it away. That probably made it a little bit easier. You know, Cucci didn&#8217;t give it away. We did pretty much everything we could. But yeah, I&#8217;m OK with that. I don&#8217;t think about it every night.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I did everything I wanted to do, and that&#8217;s the deal. I played the course without worrying about my opponent, and I totaled it over the weekend, and Jordan was in last place that week,&#8221; Kuchar said.<\/p>\n<p>Kuchar didn&#8217;t realize his wife and sons were there until he got off the green. That&#8217;s when Kuchar&#8217;s emotions that day boiled over. His son Carson was photographed crying on his shoulder as Cameron and Sybil comforted him. The heartbreaking loss left him forever one of golf&#8217;s closest players to the majors.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"content-figure\">\n<div class=\"content-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Matt Kuchar is hugged by his son Carson and comforted by his eldest son Cameron and wife Sibi Kuchar on the 18th green after coming up short at the 146th British Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England on July 23, 2017. \" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"1338\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/qDICdc9fW1K429t.gWWITQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEzMzg7Y2Y9d2VicA--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/usa_today_sports_golfweek_articles_635\/ea2d73558e96888d5ebbd8e27595b630\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"lightbox-btn\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;expand&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;image-lightbox&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;lightbox-open&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\"><span class=\"lightbox-expand\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Image Lightbox\" class=\"lightbox-overlay\" aria-modal=\"true\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"fig-caption\">\n<p>Matt Kuchar is hugged by his son Carson and comforted by his eldest son Cameron and wife Sibi Kuchar on the 18th green after coming up short at the 146th British Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England on July 23, 2017. <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;I think my kids were angry at Jordan at first,&#8221; Kuchar recalled. \u201cA month or more later, we were at a friend&#8217;s house riding an ATV and Jordan let his oldest son Cameron come along for the ride, and Cameron immediately forgave him and we became friends.<\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a father, you want to be Superman for your kids, but it&#8217;s hard when you&#8217;re not. You want to be their hero. You get emotional when you&#8217;re not, but Superman isn&#8217;t always Superman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At just 23 years old, the man in the cape became the fastest player since Jack Nicklaus in 1963 to win his third major title.<\/p>\n<p>Kuchar would go on to win two more of his nine PGA Tour titles, but never again came that close to winning a major championship. The 48-year-old is unlikely to get another chance at the British Open at Royal Birkdale, his first appearance in the championship in five years. It&#8217;s no wonder he doesn&#8217;t think he&#8217;ll ever do that again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s still disappointing, that&#8217;s for sure,&#8221; Wood said. \u201cYou look back and think we had a good chance, a really good chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>advertisement<\/p>\n<p><em>Adam Shoepack is a senior writer at Golfweek, covering the PGA Tour.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Matt Kuchar almost won the 2017 British Open and made history until Jordan Spieth went crazy<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SOUTHPORT, England \u2013 Matt Kuchar was five holes away from immortality. He&#8217;s just five holes away from the 2017 British Open here at Royal Birkdale and his name will be permanently engraved on golf&#8217;s oldest trophy, the Claret Jug, giving him a spot at the Open until he turns 60. Instead, he missed out on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-50179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}